The movement of a surgery patient from his hospital room to anesthesia, to the surgical table and back, involves many people and complicated equipment movement and can be especially cumbersome with the increasing number of obese patients. Up to six people may be needed to lift a patient from one table to another. One or two people are involved moving the patient and life support equipment within the hospital.
The PCT publication no. WO00/00152 discloses a bed having a patient support surface removably placed on support arms of a support assembly, on its turn coupled to a base with wheels. This bed may be useful for transporting a patient in a hospital, though the patient support surface must be detached from the support assembly and lifted by at least two persons to displace the patient on a surgical table or on a bed.
Outside the operating room, the quality of the sterile environment is often difficult to control.
The Japanese Patent application no. JP 2007175266 discloses a patient transportation device having a bed on which a patient lies and a capsule which covers the bed, that may be used for transporting with an aircraft a patient, to be kept in a protected space, while preventing leakage of contaminated air.
The documents WO 92/18084 and JP2006280534 disclose chambers adapted to house a patient laying on a bed, having inlet and outlet openings for transporting gases into the chamber and to or from the patient in the chamber.
Therefore, there is an unmet need to apply modern robotic technologies to benefit the patient under anesthesia while increasing comfort and safety.